Jivas

In Jainism, jivas are all the living beings that can be found in the earthly realm. This is a central concept because the fundamental Jain principle of ahimsa (nonviolence) extends to all jivas.

In Jain thinking, a jiva is a soul attached to a body. Since a soul is of flexible size, the same soul can fit inside an ant's body as a human's. According to the Jain scriptures, there are 8.4 million species of jivas. They fall into two main categories: immobile single-sensed and mobile and multi-sensed. And within these categories are subcategories, as follows: